3th Sunday of Easter

Sunday, May 05, 2019

Let’s follow the beautiful profession of faith of Peter and of the other apostles while they faced persecution from the religious authorities of Israel. It is this profession of faith in Jesus Christ, who died on the cross and resurrected to forgive the sins of the world. They proclaimed their faith from the very beginning of the existence of the Church by their inflexible attitude, being able to give their life for Jesus' sake. In this way they confirmed how important and exceptional was the mission that Jesus asked them to do after His resurrection. Today we can admire their courage, when they answered the religious authorities that they “must obey God rather than men,” or that they were “rejoicing that they had been found worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of Jesus' name.” Of course they were already strengthened many times by the Resurrected Master through His appearance to them (so called christophanei). These meetings were very necessary to them, not only to strengthen their faith, but also to instruct them about the future of the Church He was founding. Today's Gospel relates a third appearance of the Resurrected Christ to his apostles in term to show them that He is the Lord of His Church. Jesus explains to them that His word will give them a power to perform many unusual acts; an example of a miraculous catching of the fish they just witnessed. In this way He assures them about the efficacy of their mission in the Church, upon the condition, to do it in a spirit of Christ's love and in the unity of the office of Peter. All the rest depend on Jesus Christ himself who will take care about each minister if that minister will “follow Him”.